First time making super soil

I'm taking a shot at living soil, and feeding with organic teas.

I've mixed
Seabird Guano,
Neem Cake,
Blood Meal,
Fish Bone Meal,
Kelp Powder
Mycorrhizal Inoculant,
Mushroom Compost,
Humus compost,
Earthworm Castings,
Perlite of course,
Epsom Salts
BioBizz for a base.


My first shot at organics.

I'll feed with teas at signs of deficiency:
Seabird Guano for P
Neem Cake, for N
Blood Meal for N
Fish Bone Meal for N and P
Kelp Powder for K
Epsom salts.
And add Molasses to that.

Did I leave anything out?

It's my understanding that a plant will only use as much organic nutes as it needs, no matter how much is in the soil.
Unless you put some ridiculous amount of any of the above in it.

Is that accurate?

Congratulations on taking this step. Azomite and ecothrive charge ( think I spelt it right ) Perlite, worm castings. try to add your own made compost. Volcanic rock dust, blackstrap mollases
Have the soil made up as quick as you can and All ways reuse it and add as you go. Remember the nutes need breaking down by the organism. you are feeding the soil so the longer the better.

You are correct they will not burn as long as you potted into the soil from 2-3 weeks and introduce the new soil half mix with what they was already using. make sure the mychorrhizal fungi all ways touches the roots. veg will sail through, you will likely pick deff up on 3 rd week. Just post back if any problems.

plantreader said:

Congratulations on taking this step. Azomite and ecothrive charge ( think I spelt it right ) Perlite, worm castings. try to add your own made compost. Volcanic rock dust, blackstrap mollases
Have the soil made up as quick as you can and All ways reuse it and add as you go. Remember the nutes need breaking down by the organism. you are feeding the soil so the longer the better.

Click to expand...

I forgot to include the worm castings and Perlite, they are in there ! I've overwatered to death, so I'm generous with Perlite. Azomite and ecothrive, I'm checking that out. Thanks man.

Would you mind posting your mix ratio up before hand so I could take a look.

It was all guessing. I couldn't find a definitive recipe I liked.
This is based on watching a buttload of YouTube videos.

for the 2 5 gal pots I'm using:

1/3 each
Mushroom/Humus compost,
Biobizz
Perlite

around 2-3 cups each
Neem Cake,
Blood Meal,
Fish Bone Meal,
Kelp Powder
Mycorrhizal Inoculant,
Earthworm Castings,
Epsom Salts

1 cup Seabird Guano, I heard it was strong.

And I DID add some of my own compost I'm brewing to it. Mostly lettuce, coffee grounds, egg shells, I'm going to eat some bananas so I can add the peels. I bought and added red wigglers but I've yet to actually see one in it.

The teas I'm making with 1 cup of whatever nute I'm feeding in 5 gal ph'd water, bubbled overnight with an aquarium bubbler.

sorry is that 25 gallon and you have all ready done it I did not realize ,How long do do plan to veg for ? first glance you will encounter mag deff and cal. Also not enough minerals,

plantreader said:

sorry is that 25 gallon and you have all ready done it I did not realize ,How long do do plan to veg for ? first glance you will encounter mag deff and cal. Also not enough minerals,

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No, TWO 5 gallon, total 10 gals. And these are autos. Photoperiod is my next challenge.
Does that change your comment, or do I need more cal and mag?

Stumay111 said:

It was all guessing. I couldn't find a definitive recipe I liked.
This is based on watching a buttload of YouTube videos.

for the 2 5 gal pots I'm using:

1/3 each
Mushroom/Humus compost,
Biobizz
Perlite

around 2-3 cups each
Neem Cake,
Blood Meal,
Fish Bone Meal,
Kelp Powder
Mycorrhizal Inoculant,
Earthworm Castings,
Epsom Salts

1 cup Seabird Guano, I heard it was strong.

And I DID add some of my own compost I'm brewing to it. Mostly lettuce, coffee grounds, egg shells, I'm going to eat some bananas so I can add the peels. I bought and added red wigglers but I've yet to actually see one in it.

Click to expand...

Ok just throwing this out there. Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are many mixes to go with nowadays. This is not one of them. Coots. Subs Ss, even the revs. Or a number of other great mixes.


First of all you have waaaayyy to many npk inputs.2-4 cups per cf TOTAL.

and you have zero mineral inputs. 4 cups/cf minimum.

if you plant into that mix I doubt anything will do well if even survive.

don’t thrown raw banana peels anywhere near your plants. They need to be composted or fermented. No reason to add worms to a five gallon pot.

To make it easy I’ve posted a fool proof recipe in my stickier 2021 journal. I think on the second page.

best of luck. Don’t guess and stay off YouTube.Mostly jokers if you don’t know what your looking for.

green_machine_two9er said:

Ok just throwing this out there. Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are many mixes to go with nowadays. This is not one of them. Coots. Subs Ss, even the revs. Or a number of other great mixes.


First of all you have waaaayyy to many npk inputs.2-4 cups per cf TOTAL.

and you have zero mineral inputs. 4 cups/cf minimum.

if you plant into that mix I doubt anything will do well if even survive.

don’t thrown raw banana peels anywhere near your plants. They need to be composted or fermented. No reason to add worms to a five gallon pot.

To make it easy I’ve posted a fool proof recipe in my stickier 2021 journal. I think on the second page.

best of luck. Don’t guess and stay off YouTube.Mostly jokers if you don’t know what your looking for.

Click to expand...

I found your recipe, and will adapt. Thanks so much.

Hello. There is so many variables to these mixes and Subcol has updated his mix thousands of times. you learn as you go and adapt the mix to the needs like timeframe for emp. Mix is only one part to the whole plants well being. I learnt what one person put down to a fault or some failure was often caused by another.
You get personal preferences and tweak it how you like just how a baker would. Take the epson salt for magnesium for example. I personally see it as to soluble and does not sustain a heavy feeder in veg for ten week. I will see def if relied upon itself.
I love using chicken pellets. nothing has all ready been invented

plantreader said:

Hello. There is so many variables to these mixes and Subcol has updated his mix thousands of times. you learn as you go and adapt the mix to the needs like timeframe for emp. Mix is only one part to the whole plants well being. I learnt what one person put down to a fault or some failure was often caused by another.
You get personal preferences and tweak it how you like just how a baker would. Take the epson salt for magnesium for example. I personally see it as to soluble and does not sustain a heavy feeder in veg for ten week. I will see def if relied upon itself.
I love using chicken pellets. nothing has all ready been invented

Click to expand...

I've learned the hard way to take all advice with a grain of salt, and find agreement elsewhere before I try it. And the youtube videos I watch are from experienced growers and scientists. I trust them.

Do you mean chicken pellets like they feed chickens?

Stumay111 said:

I found your recipe, and will adapt. Thanks so much.

Click to expand...

and as other have stated the base and general mineral to nutrient ratio is more important than actual recipe. You can very well use the amendments you have on hand. Just more like 1/2- 1 cups each instead of 2-3.
And minerals can be as diverse or simple as you please. But don’t skimp. I think oyster and gypsum are a staple. But that’s with peat based. I’m not sure what the bio bizz soil comes with as far as buffers.

around 2-3 cups each
Neem Cake,
Blood Meal,
Fish Bone Meal,
Kelp Powder
Mycorrhizal Inoculant,
Earthworm Castings,
Epsom Salts

I pasted the above,am I reading this right?Thats 14-21 cups you added to 10 gallons of soil?I hope not.

Stumay111 said:

I've learned the hard way to take all advice with a grain of salt, and find agreement elsewhere before I try it. And the youtube videos I watch are from experienced growers and scientists. I trust them.

Do you mean chicken pellets like they feed chickens?

Click to expand...

That's cool. I don't do auto's and it has been a long time since I looked at these online mixes so it has probably all changed now so going off them will be a good start.
I give the soil chicken pellets. Edit. poo..Years ago I used to keep chickens and put a 10 ft high frame around and turned it into a greenhouse. I put a seed down for a laugh and thought nothing of it. I was all ready growing at the time but with A and B. Talk about jack and the beanstalk it flew but to this day it was the most beautiful plant I have ever seen if it could talk it would say I love you. not one mark or blemish, day after day shoot after shoot after shoot. I had to cut it down being next to a footpath. That's how I got into my love of organic growing and I have never looked back. I have a massive pile of soil in there at the moment about 1500 litres that i have gathered and reused over the years and swear by chicken pellets it adds so much fertility and structure to the soil. I would love to say to Subgive it a go and tell me what you think. Its been a while since I kept up with it but he never had it on his list. Maybe he would of added it or all ready has. who knows. I would of also suggested if I could have your opinion if you layed off the bat guano( especially high phos ratio ). I think it gives off a horrible stale taste. I can all ways tell when people add this to there soil, especially later on.
All the fun is trying and giving it a go

green_machine_two9er said:

and as other have stated the base and general mineral to nutrient ratio is more important than actual recipe. You can very well use the amendments you have on hand. Just more like 1/2- 1 cups each instead of 2-3.
And minerals can be as diverse or simple as you please. But don’t skimp. I think oyster and gypsum are a staple. But that’s with peat based. I’m not sure what the bio bizz soil comes with as far as buffers.

Click to expand...

I have filled the holes the dogs dug with the soil I made You made me nervous.

I cobbled together this recipe and plan from yours and what I had on hand/what I could get quickly, since I have two seedlings in Rockwool that are almost ready.

My recipe and plan:

Base mix:
5 gal BioBiz light
5 gal Mushroom Compost
5 gal Hummus Compost
5 gal Perlite

Amendments:
For the whole 20 gals
2 cup kelp
2 cup neam
1-1/2 cup fish bone meal
1 cup blood meal
2 cup worm castings
2 cup powdered molasses
2 cup azomite
1 cup seabird guano (heard it was strong)
2 cups Dolomite Lime

4 cups activated biochsr
4 cups fresh compost
My compost is nearly all egg shells, coffee grounds and lettuce. I need to eat some bananas.

Place all of that in a kiddie pool and mix the hell out of it.

Adjust for Ph by watering 3 gal bucket, testing runoff, and adjusting with more lime or more molasses.

Plant ground cover in it. Keep it in my garage; I may or may not put a grow light out there. I will drag it out into the driveway to get some sun and light rain. I live in the south US.

When I need some, go dig it up. Ground cover will already be there. I propagate my seeds in Rockwool (soaked in a coconut water solution) so they won't have to fight with the ground cover to grow. I'll be placing the cubes in a bed of Mycorrhizal Inoculant.

This next grow will be in two 5 gal pots, so I'll leave 10 gallons behind to recycle with.

During the grow, I'll adjust with teas for deficiencies, and adjust my living soil as well.

You see anything I'm leaving out (or putting to much in of) that jumps out at you? Thanks so much for your advice.

Never done this before, all based on what I've read and googled.

I'll be getting some volcanic rock for the next grow. I can't get it fast enough for this one.

myke said:

around 2-3 cups each
Neem Cake,
Blood Meal,
Fish Bone Meal,
Kelp Powder
Mycorrhizal Inoculant,
Earthworm Castings,
Epsom Salts

I pasted the above,am I reading this right?Thats 14-21 cups you added to 10 gallons of soil?I hope not.

Click to expand...

I just posted my revised recipe below.

plantreader said:

That's cool. I don't do auto's and it has been a long time since I looked at these online mixes so it has probably all changed now so going off them will be a good start.
I give the soil chicken pellets. Edit. poo..Years ago I used to keep chickens and put a 10 ft high frame around and turned it into a greenhouse. I put a seed down for a laugh and thought nothing of it. I was all ready growing at the time but with A and B. Talk about jack and the beanstalk it flew but to this day it was the most beautiful plant I have ever seen if it could talk it would say I love you. not one mark or blemish, day after day shoot after shoot after shoot. I had to cut it down being next to a footpath. That's how I got into my love of organic growing and I have never looked back. I have a massive pile of soil in there at the moment about 1500 litres that i have gathered and reused over the years and swear by chicken pellets it adds so much fertility and structure to the soil. I would love to say to Subgive it a go and tell me what you think. Its been a while since I kept up with it but he never had it on his list. Maybe he would of added it or all ready has. who knows. I would of also suggested if I could have your opinion if you layed off the bat guano( especially high phos ratio ). I think it gives off a horrible stale taste. I can all ways tell when people add this to there soil, especially later on.
All the fun is trying and giving it a go

Click to expand...

I posted a revised recipe below. I can't have chickens my dogs would kill them for sport.

Stumay111 said:

I posted a revised recipe below. I can't have chickens my dogs would kill them for sport.

Click to expand...

Here's my soil testers waiting for me to setup their new tent. They look EXTREMELY pleased with my formula! It's no till.